


Piss off your parents (Date me to scare them)

by stardustchenle



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fake/Pretend Relationship, I have no idea where that leaves the other two but we're ignoring them, Multi, Nice Audrey Rose (Disney), because insecurities, but chad thinks it's all for show, chad charming is not actually bad, chad charming-centric, insecure chad charming is insecure, lots of flirting, oblivious chad charming, other additional characters and tags to be added as they appear, set 1 year after the first movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26796724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustchenle/pseuds/stardustchenle
Summary: “Why?” Audrey asked in a drawn-out higher pitch, like she couldn’t possibly see any of the many things that were wrong with what she had just suggested.“I’d rather just wait for my parents to give up on their own.”Audrey rolled her eyes, and this time she did move to face him. “Oh, come on, it’s not a bad idea!”"Jay?"Chad repeated, hoping that hearing it from someone else would’ve made her come back to her senses and realise how absurd all of this was. “You want me to dateJay?!"Or the one where Chad desperately wanted his parents to stop trying to set him up on dates with any princess they knew, and getting into a fake relationship with Jay to shock them somehow seemed to be the best option he had left. He didn't expect it to be quite as fun as it turned out to be.
Relationships: Chad Charming & Audrey Rose, Chad Charming/Jay, chad charming & cinderella & prince charming
Comments: 38
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Do I think that canon Chad is kind of an asshole first and then pretty dumb in the way he's showed? as much as the next person. But I have to thank [RebelPaisley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelPaisley/pseuds/RebelPaisley) and her fics for introducing me to the wonderful world of exploring Chad's backstory and expanding on his character and his motives, she does it in a way that's sublime. I love it so much when under-developed characters are explored, so I couldn't not jump on the train as well!
> 
> A huge thank you to Dyl, my wonderful beta and friend, who is even more a baby Descendants fan than me and honestly started learning about it just because of me and this fic. Love you, Dyl.
> 
> Title, vague inspiration and the lyrics in the first chapter are from the song "18" by Anarbor, that I have wanted to write something inspired by for literal years, so I'm quite pleased. Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So if you wanna piss off your parents,  
> date me to scare them,  
> show them you're all grown up.  
> If long hair and tattoos are what attract you,  
> baby, then you're in luck.  
> And I know it's just a phase,  
> you're not in love with me.  
> You wanna piss off your parents, baby,  
> piss off your parents,  
> that's alright with me."  
> \- "18", Anarbor

Chad was gaping at Audrey.

“You’ve actually lost your mind.”

Audrey didn’t even bother turning towards him and just patted her cheeks with a powder puff a couple of times, looking as regal as ever sat with her back straight and her legs crossed at the vanity of her all-pink bedroom. A striking difference to Chad, currently slouching on a chair closeby in a way that would’ve for sure made his grandfather’s moustache twitch. But he could allow himself to lose the princely posture for a while due to the _situation._

“Why?” she asked in a drawn-out higher pitch, like she couldn’t possibly see any of the many things that were wrong with what she had just suggested.

“I’d rather just wait for my parents to give up on their own.” 

Audrey rolled her eyes, and this time she did move to face him. “Oh, come on, it’s not a bad idea!”

“ _Jay?”_ Chad repeated, hoping that hearing it from someone else would’ve made her come back to her senses and realise how absurd all of this was. “You want me to _date Jay?!”_

“Listen,” Audrey started, placing the powder puff in its box and turning her full body in Chad’s direction. “You want your parents to stop pushing us two to be together again, or try and set you up with every single princess daughter of their friends. And we’ve seen how acting like some player and asshole no girl would even consider going on an arranged date with has turned out for you.” She pointedly looked at him with one raised eyebrow.

Chad shrunk in his seat and avoided her eyes as he muttered: “ _The biggest jerk in all the land…_ ” 

He still felt guilty about that. Acting dumb had also been part of his plan to make himself as unappealing as possible (helped by the fact that he was always so busy with sports and extracurrical activities and all the appearence things a prince was tacitly expected to be doing by his kingdom that his grades actually suffered), but he often wondered if it had ended up rubbing off on him, because the way he had treated the Isle quartet was _stupid._ Those guys had had enough people not happy with them being in Auradon from the beginning already, they could’ve done without him joining in as well.

Audrey continued: “So, all you need to do is just pretend to date someone your parents wouldn’t like! They’re too kind to actually forbid you from seeing a person you’re apparently happy with, but this way they won’t start daydreaming of a wedding right away.”

That had been the problem when he “dated” Audrey. Chad had been happy to be there for his best friend during her shock post sudden breakup with Ben, and plus stop his parents from orchestrating dates for him for a while at the same time, but he hadn’t considered that his family could’ve been enthusiastic about the news. Audrey and he had “broken up” after noticing the king and queen of Cinderellasburg had gotten a bit _too_ happy with the idea of the two of them being together.

It’s not like Chad was opposed to dating, he just wanted it to happen naturally, on his own terms.

“It can’t be someone your parents already know from past court events because they would spot the difference in behaviour right away if they started acting weird,” Audrey continued to explain. “and out of who’s left the Isle kids are the best bet for someone who would know how to drive them crazy. But it also needs to be someone charming enough that it would be believable for you to be dating them, and I think it would be impossible for Evie to do anything even _remotely_ unregal that would bother your parents, they’d love her.”

 _‘And she would never accept coming from you_ ’ was implied in her words, but Chad was glad Audrey had found a way to avoid mentioning it. She was really sweet to him sometimes.

“So, in the end, Jay is the best option,” Audrey concluded with a smug smile on her face.

Chad thought over what she had said, then sighed, defeated. “I hate when you’re right.”

Audrey sent him a flying kiss.

“But still, how would I even ask? It’s not like my _dazzling good looks_ and _wonderful personality_ would make him forget that he hates me,” Chad retorted, purposefully laying it thick on the sarcastic tone when mentioning his own supposed qualities.

Audrey furrowed her brows. “Hate you? Didn’t you apologise?”

Chad faltered. “Well, yeah. But I’ve been a real dick to them last year, Audrey. We’re civil at best, me and Jay at practice included.”

Audrey shrugged. “Maybe use that to your advantage, then? Like, tell him you need this one favour and then you’ll do whatever he wants to repay for this and how you acted in the past.”

Chad groaned. There was a real chance that Jay would actually agree to a proposition worded like that, and it worried him more than the prospect of having to be subjected to his parents’ matchmaking first hand when they would come visit for Family Day in a week’s time.

He looked at Audrey, fully aware of the smirk on her face that showed she knew she had won. It _was_ a good idea, he just wasn’t sure about the way to get there. 

“You just want me to be a dead man, don’t you?”

She rose to her feet, elegant as ever, and came in front of him to leave a light kiss on his blonde curls, then walked over to her bed and draped herself on it. Her darker skin looked especially lovely against the pale pink of the bedding. She sighed dramatically, although it couldn’t completely stop her smile from peeking through. 

“Ah, the things a girl would do to _not_ get married to her own prince charming.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Chad lingered around in the locker rooms on Monday afternoon, pretending to adjust the contents of his tourney bag for the fifth time in a row as he counted out of the corner of his eye how many people still had to leave. As the captain, Jay always stayed behind for a bit after every practice to hear out what the coach thought the team needed to work on, and consequently, he was usually also the last one to leave the locker rooms. 

Which was beneficial for Chad’s plan, aside from the part where he was about to talk to Jay alone in a place that would have been empty until the next practice and quite unlikely for Chad to be found in if he accidentally said the wrong thing and Jay decided to punch him and just leave him knocked out on the floor. So.

After everyone else finally left, Chad closed his bag and slung it on one shoulder as he got up from one of the benches. He took a deep breath silently and walked over to Jay until he was behind him.

“Hey, Jay.”

The captain stopped rummaging in his locker and turned around, a towel still in one hand and his damp hair falling over his shoulders. Chad noticed then that he had probably chosen the wrong moment to start up a conversation like the one he intended to have, because Jay was still shirtless after his shower. Great. To prevent the situation from getting weirder than it would already be, he made a point to firmly avoid looking at anything below the other’s neck.

Jay’s face shifted into an expression of mild confusion after seeing him there, probably at why _Chad_ was talking to him, of all people. 

“Charming? Something wrong?” he asked, starting to rub the towel on his head to dry his hair.

And that made Chad realise that the whole thing was _stupid_. He couldn’t just outright ask for Jay’s help, not when for the two of them it was even unusual to say more than a collective _‘Hi’_ with the rest of the team at the beginning and end of practice. In a split second, he changed his plans.

“Uhm, nice job today, out there,” Chad said, nodding his head in the general direction of the field. “You were good.” He tried a smile that should’ve looked appealing, or at least friendly, but he wasn’t that sure he was managing to pull it off as well as his usual.

Jay remained silent for a moment, looking at him while slowly toweling his hair like he was waiting for Chad to add something else. An insult, most likely.

After he probably realised it wasn’t coming, he gave Chad an unconvinced “Thanks...”, still eyeing him suspiciously.

Chad smiled again, smaller this time, and took a step back. He began to leave and hinted at a wave of a hand in the other’s direction when he reached the exit, and Jay nodded his head up at him as a farewell.

After that, gripping the strap of his gym bag tighter, Chad turned around for good and walked out the doors of the locker rooms. When his feet were safely stepping on the synthetic grass of the tourney pitch, he groaned. He had thought that asking Jay for the favour would’ve been a nightmare, but apparently he was having problems even _getting_ to that point. 

Audrey was going to have a field day when he told her.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Chad was in the cafeteria the next day when he saw Jay again. 

He had grabbed his own lunch and was just about to go look for the table Audrey had found for them, when he noticed Jay standing at the end of the line to get food with an empty tray in his hands.

That was it, Chad thought. If planning how to talk to Jay about the deal ended up stressing him and making him chicken out, he would just do it on a whim. And in a place full of people, which hopefully would contain any negative outburst he possibly could have caused. Plus, everyone else in the cafeteria was busy chattering amongst themselves, so he and Jay would have the same number of people listening in on their conversation as if they were in an empty room.

He could do this.

He walked up to Jay, coming at a stop when he was at his side.

“Hey.”

Jay turned towards him after hearing his voice. He still had the same slightly surprised expression from the locker rooms on his face, which was… not good for Chad, probably, but he vowed to just go on despite that. 

“Hi, Charming.”

“Hi. Listen, Jay, I was thinking…” Chad started with his best smile, until he spotted multi-coloured leather approaching from the corner of his eye. 

_Oh no._

Evie, Carlos and Mal were getting closer faster than Chad would’ve liked, and while the rest of the cafeteria probably wasn’t going to listen to Jay’s and his conversation, Jay’s friends definitely would want to. There was no way he would have been able to explain what he needed with them present too ⎼ probably going to interrupt him after two sentences to tell him it was a stupid idea and to stay away from Jay ⎼ and they were already only a couple of steps away. Had they sped up just because they had seen him there talking to Jay and they thought something bad was about to happen? Wouldn’t be surprising, all things considered.

“... Do you like apples? You seem like you would. Here,” Chad swiftly (he hoped) diverted, then took the apple from his own food tray and placed it on Jay’s still empty one with a big grin. 

“Hey guys!” He waved to the other three a bit too cheerfully before rushing to his own table, firmly refraining from looking behind his shoulders to check if the Isle quartet were staring at his back like he felt they probably were.

When he sat down next to Audrey, she was repeatedly shifting her gaze between the group still in the line and Chad’s tray.

He would have slumped in his seat to best wallow in self-pity, if he wasn’t so used to following all the princely behaviour lessons he had been made to attend by his grandfather over the years. He purposely didn’t look at Audrey in favour of staring down at his own food to avoid the questioning expression he knew he would’ve read on her face.

“Not a word, please.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Chad fiddled with his hands some more. It was Thursday and time was running out if he wanted to put the plan in motion, there were only three days left until Family Day and his parents coming to visit Auradon Prep. 

Reason why he currently found himself in front of the door of Jay's and Carlos' dorm room. 

Seeing Carlos studying in the library was what had made Chad decide to seek Jay out at that moment in the first place, seeing that in the bedroom they would've hopefully had no interruptions or distractions, if Jay was going to be willing to hear him out. Now he just needed to knock and find out.

"Trying to sneak in and use our 3d printer again?"

Chad was startled and whipped his head to the side at the voice and, because luck seemed to never be on his side, he came face to face with Carlos and his crossed arms. The guy had been with his nose stuck to his computer in the library _ten_ minutes before, what were the odds?

"No!" Chad denied vehemently, waving his hands in front of himself. The last thing he needed to get Jay to consider helping him was his best friend telling him how he had just caught Chad trying to _break into their bedroom_. "No, no, that's not it! I just wanted to talk to⎼ You know what? Nevermind."

Chad regained his composure, because he was a _Charming_ , and being able to act calm and collected in any situation was what he had been taught since he was a child and he could understand the word “prince.” (Granted, not that he got to show that skill much at Auradon Prep. Not when acting a coward and a scaredy cat had also done its part in the past in dissuading a fair share of arranged dates who were looking for their idea of a knight in shining armour.)

Chad smiled, because his smile had always been one of his best assets when trying to diffuse or get out of a situation, and nodded his head to bid farewell in a way that he made sure couldn’t appear mocking.

“See you around, Carlos.”

With that, he left before the other could say a word.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

By the time Friday rolled around, Chad had resigned himself. All his attempts had failed, for one reason or another, and he was already dreading having to be subjected to his parents’ matchmaking again. He really didn’t feel like bringing back the subtly being an asshole to whoever they were going to introduce him to.

While he was occupied moping on one of the locker room benches and storing away his sweaty clothes into his tourney bag, Chad noticed that Jay seemed to be looking at him. Chad walked a couple of steps away to retrieve his shoes, got back to the bench to tie them, turned to the side to close his bag, but sure enough, he could still see Jay’s eyes on him from the corner of his peripheral vision.

Chad concluded that after a week of his poor attempts at starting up a conversation and of generally acting weird, Jay must’ve realised that Chad wanted something from him. The last thing he needed was Jay telling him out loud to stop stalking him, or even worse, _asking_ about what Chad wanted, in the middle of the still-packed locker rooms. So, as he continued to feel Jay’s eyes unnervingly still on him, Chad grabbed his bag and bolted out the door.

He was power-walking past the bleachers when he heard a “Hey!” and felt a hand grab his shoulder and hold him back, causing him to curse internally.

He turned around and, of course, it was Jay. Just his luck.

“Man, are you okay?” Jay asked with an eyebrow raised, his hand slipping away from Chad’s shoulder. 

Chad plastered on a smile and feigned ignorance: “Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’ve been acting weird in general, Carlos said you were out of our room yesterday waiting for me and looking nervous, and Mal checked the apple you gave me at lunch the other day and it wasn’t poisoned, so⎼”

“You thought I was trying to _poison you_?” Chad interrupted him in disbelief. Then, it clicked. 

“Wait, of course you would. I’m an idiot.” He sighed, dropping his face in his hands. An apple, gifted by someone who had been far from Jay’s friend in the past, seemingly for no reason at all. He had basically acted exactly like the Evil Queen had done to Snow White, that was bound to look suspicious. Chad liked to think that if he ever _were_ to poison someone, he would’ve been far more original and less obvious than that, but it was not like Jay could have known.

“Well, yeah, but it turned out you weren’t, so the point is…” an impossibly smug grin grew on Jay’s face and his tone turned sing-songy. “Were you trying to ask me on a date?”

Chad sighed, half at how annoyingly amused Jay seemed to be at the mere prospect of having found out Chad had a _crush_ on him, and half to ready himself to speak, because it looked like maybe he still had one last chance to ask for his help with the plan. “Not exactly, but kinda. I would need a favour.” He made sure to use the conditional, hoping that the small detail could help get the other more willing to hear him out than a direct demand.

“A favour?”

“Yes,” Chad confirmed slowly, trying to gage the other’s reaction.

Jay just looked at him, impassive and seemingly waiting, so Chad braced himself and elaborated: “You see, my parents are coming to visit for Family Day tomorrow, and they have a thing for always trying to set me up with any princess available. So I need someone they don’t know to pretend to date me while they’re here to make it look like I’m not single, but also annoy them on purpose in some way, like acting uncourtly and all that, so my parents don’t start thinking of organising a wedding already.”

Jay smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. That couldn’t mean anything that bad, right? Unless he was still listening to Chad and hadn’t punched him yet only to have more material to better make fun of him later. 

“So you thought you needed that bad boy charm, uh?”

It was Audrey’s idea, really, but Chad wasn’t going to mention it. Stroking Jay’s ego was probably only going to work in his favour. “Pretty much.”

“And what’s in it for me?”

Chad took in a breath. “I should say I’ll do anything you want to repay for this and for how I... acted in the past, to you and your friends, but I’m slightly worried at giving you all that liberty. But,” he shrugged, “we’ll figure something out.”

Jay hadn’t walked away or laughed at him yet, which made Chad feel a tinge of hope.

After a couple of seconds, Jay nodded. “I’ll do it.” He seemed sincere.

Chad exhaled in relief.

“Auradon’s nice and all, but sometimes I miss causing a bit of chaos.” Jay uncrossed his arms and grabbed onto the strap of his own gym bag. “How’s this going to work?”

Well, that had been… surprisingly easy. “I’m going to have lunch with my parents at some restaurant in the city, so you could come to that. I’ll mention to them in the morning that I’m bringing someone, and we can both go with the car that’s going to pick me up.”

Jay nodded again. “Alright. What’s the story of how we got together?”

Chad thought for a moment. “I guess just that it’s a pretty recent thing and that we got to know each other because of tourney? Nothing complicated to make up or remember. Just… act in the most un-princely way you can think of.”

Jay smirked. “That’s gonna be easy. What about the kissing, touching and all that? What are the rules there?”

Chad shrugged, then readjusted the bag higher on his shoulder after it had slipped down a bit. “It would look weird if we never did. Whatever comes natural at the moment, I guess? I don’t really mind physical contact, so while the deal is on just do whatever you feel is gonna work at the moment, and I’ll tell you or make you stop if something is making me uncomfortable. And vice versa. Is that cool with you?”

“Fine by me. At what time will the lunch be?” Jay agreed once more, and Chad started to think that it was all going too smoothly for some trick to not be in there somewhere. But he didn’t have much other choice, so he could only trust Jay and hope for the best.

“The car is passing to pick me up, or, us, at twelve. Is that okay?”

Another nod. “Yeah, sure. See ya tomorrow.”

Jay looked like he was about to leave, but stopped when he saw Chad outstretch his hand. 

“Just a habit,” Chad explained with a shrug. “No good deal without a shake.”

Jay grabbed the hand that was being offered to him and gave it one firm shake.

Chad took a step back after they separated. “I’ll pass by your room tomorrow when it’s time to go.”

Jay nodded his head up as a final goodbye and walked around Chad to get past him. He had started heading towards the school already, when Chad had one last afterthought and turned around to call out after him.

“Jay!”

The other spun and they looked at each other again. Chad stood quiet for a moment, stalling.

“Thank you.”

A smirk crept up Jay’s face. “Remember you’ll owe me after this before you say that, Charming. Besides, it sounds like it’ll be fun.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Finally, the dreaded Family Day came.

Chad and Audrey were among the group of students waiting in the back garden of Auradon Prep to be approached by their families. They had just finished performing Be Our Guest ⎼ it was always Be Our Guest, every year, but Chad wasn’t going to openly complain about a tradition of the royal family in front of them ⎼ and Chad was still wearing his best, brightest, most dazzling smile, the one he had sported for the whole song. He slowly let it drop inconspicuously after he spotted his parents walking towards him.

He inhaled. “Oh, here we go.”

“It will be fine, don’t worry,” Audrey reassured him from his side, then moved in front of him to fix the collar of his shirt and smooth the shoulders of his jacket with her hands. It did help calm his nerves down a bit, so he was grateful. Audrey looked up at him and made sure he met her gaze. “You have a plan this time.”

Chad looked at her and nodded. “Right.” He didn’t sound that convinced even to his own ears.

After a second of silence, Audrey patted him on both shoulders. “Well, I see Grammy over there, I better get going. Good luck!”

With a flurry of her skirt she was suddenly gone, moments before Chad’s parents reached him. He didn’t blame her.

“Chad!” his mother greeted him first, wrapping her arms around him and leaving a light kiss on his cheek. “We’ve missed you so much, dear.”

He couldn’t help but respond to her soft smile after she leaned back, hands still lingering on his shoulders, with one of his own. For how much his parents could be at times, his mother’s gentleness was always bound to be infectious to him in some way.

She took a proper step back this time, so that Chad’s father could pull him into a hug as well.

“We missed you, son,” he said, then returned to stand next to his wife. 

Chad gave them another smile. “Hi mom, dad. Having fun?” he asked, even if there wasn’t really anything entertaining to do at Family Day apart from eating from the buffet, chatting and playing croquet.

His father nodded. “Of course! You know I always enjoy the musical number.”

And watching that too, apparently.

“Was Audrey the one next to you just now?” his father asked, feigning ignorance to the non sequitur.

There it was.

Both his parents were already craning their necks and twisting around to try and spot her in the crowd, so Chad decided to prevent having to deal with what would’ve come if they did and linked his arms with theirs.

“Yes, but she’s busy now,” he said as he quickly dragged them over to the edge of the croquet field, without really giving them the time to realise what he was doing.

He figured that distracting them as soon as possible was probably for the best, so he cleared his throat. “I have something to tell you.”

He swiftly disentangled himself from the limbs wrapped around his elbows and spun around to come to stand in front of his parents again. “There’s someone I would like to bring to our lunch today.” 

He dropped the bomb, bowing his head slightly and faking a sheepish smile as he looked up at his parents through his blonde curls.

His mother’s face lit up immediately. 

“Oh, that’s _wonderful_ , Chad! We would be glad to have them! Is it someone we know?”

“Are they here?” added his father.

They were already resuming their scavenging of the crowd, so Chad grabbed one of their hands in each of his to stop them. “No!”

He couldn’t have them possibly see Jay at that moment, because Chad had spotted him before during the song, and Jay looked _good._ Extremely good. He had his hair half-tied back and was wearing black jeans, a white shirt and what looked like the love child between a burgundy blazer and the sleeves of a black leather letterman jacket, and Chad was pretty sure it would have been impossible for him to _not_ make a great first impression on whoever saw him looking like that. He hoped he at least had gotten the memo for the actual lunch meeting later.

“No, they’re… they’re not here. And you don’t know them yet,” Chad told his parents, wearing his best shy smile and continuing to hold onto their hands to keep their attention away from the rest of the people behind them, because introducing Jay to them right then and there was out of the question.

Even if, with how Jay had thrusted his face right under the chocolate fountain to eat as much of it as he could the year prior, maybe it wouldn’t have completely ruined the plan.

Unfortunately, thinking about how Jay had resurfaced from that with chocolate smeared all around his mouth in a way that was frankly almost too adorable for a guy who was usually all about being flirty and laid back and looking sexy with his muscles out and sleeveless vests and long hair, also brought Chad to remember what had happened with the Isle quartet at the previous Family Day _after_ that. 

At least his parents hadn’t been there, busy on a trip to Westerly to discuss how to best make the areas on both sides of the confine between the two kingdoms more habitated and more welcoming for merchants transporting goods from and to or for people on long travels. Knowing that his mother and father hadn’t witnessed him act like an asshole was a small relief. Although, if his parents _had_ been present he would’ve likely been occupied talking with them and being a perfect prince in front of their eyes. Instead, he had gotten too heated trying to side with Audrey’s grandma against Mal because of Audrey, because Audrey was his _friend_ who had just recently been unceremoniously _dumped_ in front of the whole school for Mal and was still recovering from the embarrassment and she didn’t _deserve_ that, and Chad had grown so used to being snarky to drive some people away that he had gone too far and acted like a major _jerk_. The biggest one in all the land, to be precise.

He quickly retreated from his thoughts and got back to distracting his parents before his mood could turn even more sour, and before his parents could notice it had in the first place.

“But you’re going to meet them later, so no problem!” Chad’s grin was so wide and overly cheerful that he felt like his cheeks couldn’t possibly go higher than that. He held up a croquet mallet that had been laying on the grass next to his feet. “What do you say we play a game for now?”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

After about an hour, Chad bid goodbye to his parents and went back to his own room to change his clothes for the lunch. Once he was done, he swung by Jay’s room to pick him up.

Moments after Chad knocked, Jay opened the door and Chad looked him over, pleased with what he saw. Jay was wearing a beanie, the combat boots and pants full of pockets that Chad had seen on him dozens of times before, the fingerless leather gloves that seemed to be a staple accessory for the ex isle residents and a sleeveless leather vest that seemed to have even more zippers and metal studs than usual. A big difference from that morning, and exactly what was needed for the plan.

“Hey,” Chad greeted him with a small wave before sliding his hands into his pants pockets.

Jay didn’t say hello back, apparently too busy studying Chad up and down while still holding the door open with one hand.

“You look like a giant stick of cotton candy,” was his verdict once he was done.

Chad snorted. “Yeah, well. Figured that if I wore the most obnoxiously pastel suit I own the contrast between us would’ve been more striking.” 

A corner of Jay’s lips curled up into a smirk. 

“Big words there, Charming.”

Chad placed a hand on his own chest. “Most people get too distracted by my dazzling good looks to notice my brilliant brain,” he said dramatically, looking into the distance. 

Jay raised an eyebrow at him, but he at least looked like he had gotten the irony. “Uh huh. Sure.”

It _was_ kind of true, really, even if the main reason people thought he was stupid was the dumb persona he had been purposely playing, not the fact that he was more or less considered conventionally attractive. But he couldn't outright say that, not when secrecy was the whole point of _having_ a cover persona.

“Ready to go?” Chad asked instead, bringing the conversation back to the reason why they were standing on opposite sides of an open doorway in the first place.

“Yeah, I’m good. Lead the way, Charming.” 

Chad stepped back so that Jay could get out and close the door behind him, then they walked side by side in silence until they were outside in front of the school. 

There were more people still lingering about out there than Chad would’ve liked. He had hoped that the majority of students would’ve been busy spending time with their families and that he and Jay could’ve kept their leaving on the downlow, if the shiny black car sporting Cinderellasburgs’ crest on the side doors and on the little flags on the hood in the front that was waiting for them could be considered ‘on the downlow’ in any way. At least, with so many royals and nobles in visit for the day, it didn’t stick out _too_ much among the other fancy cars parked around there, even if the one sent by Chad’s parents was the only one with its kingdom’s crest on the side. The others seemed satisfied enough with just the flags.

“It’s that one,” he pointed for Jay, before making his way towards the car. He lightly knocked with the knuckle of his forefinger on the driver’s window to let him know they had arrived, then moved to the backseat door, pulled the handle and slid to the side.

Jay didn’t move.

“What are you doing?”

Chad looked at him like it was obvious, because it _was_ , his hand still holding onto the car handle. “Opening the door for you.”

Jay was looking at him weird. “Your parents aren’t here.”

Chad rolled his eyes. “It’s still good manners, especially when I’m a prince and you’re getting on a car that represents my kingdom. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”

Jay snorted. “Lots of useless things you need to worry about, it seems,” he said before leaving a light punch against Chad’s chest as he passed by him to climb into the car.

“You have no idea,” Chad mumbled under his breath as he got in after Jay and closed the door behind himself. 

He suddenly scolded himself when he realised he hadn’t warned Jay not to mention anything about their _arrangement_ in the car, because he didn’t know how much attention the driver would be paying to their conversation, and the plan would’ve been for nothing if Chad’s parents decided to ask the driver questions after the lunch and he had heard Jay and Chad mention something that made it clear it was all a big scheme. Luckily, Jay just talked about how he still got surprised at how comfortable the seats of the royal cars in Auradon were, softer than anything that could be found on the Isle, _‘And they’re just used for moving.’_

It was relatively harmless small talk, Jay had probably said it without thinking anything of it, but it made Chad feel a pang of guilt in his stomach again at remembering how he had treated the Isle kids when they had first come to Auradon. He hadn’t known back then how hard they had always had it, and he had been an asshole to them. And for what? To keep up his way of preventing his parents from setting him up on _dates?_ It sounded more and more stupid every time he thought about it. And one of them was even _helping him_ after that. There would be something in exchange at the end, sure, but Chad couldn’t imagine any payback that would be big enough.

The voice of the driver broke him out of his thoughts: “Sir, we have arrived.”

Chad regained himself and turned towards Jay, only to find him already looking at him with eyes slightly narrowed and staring right through Chad’s.

“You good?”

Chad reined himself in before he could do something very stupid, like answering _‘No’_ and mean it more about his own moral value than his emotional state, and forced a practiced smile on his lips. “Yeah, sorry. Just- lost in thought.”

“Mmh.” Jay hummed a short reply, still looking at Chad like he wasn’t convinced, but a moment later his default careless expression was back. “We can’t stay in here forever. Go on, Charming.”

“You know,” Chad started as they got out of the car “you should stop calling me by my last name, at least in front of my parents, since we’re supposed to be dating and all.” 

A flirty smile spread on Jay’s lips and he leaned in closer to Chad’s face. “Whatever you say, _babe_ ,” he drawled.

Chad hummed as he watched the car drive away.

“That could work.”

“Uh?” 

“The babe,” Chad explained. “It’s probably not a pet name my parents consider classy or sweet, or whatever, especially if you say it like that. That could irk them some more.”

“Shall we?” he asked then, motioning towards the door of the restaurant behind them. He started heading in without waiting for Jay’s reply.

While the head waiter welcomed them and took note of Chad’s name ⎼ and gave a confused once-over at Jay’s clothes ⎼ Chad looked for his parents. He spotted them in a more private area of the restaurant, sitting at a round table at the farthest end from the door.

When the head waiter moved away to collect their menus, Chad leaned in to Jay’s side.

“They’re over there,” he whispered, before nodding his head in the direction of his parents.

The waiter came back and started to calmly lead them across the fancy dining hall, while Jay seemed to be studying the table they were heading to as if to choose his best plan of action.

“How bad do you want me to act?” Jay whispered back to him.

“Do your worst,” Chad replied, before seeing the smile beside him grow into a grin and realising that was probably the last thing one should say to Jay.

“Just, you know, nothing to make them out-right forbid me from seeing you. Just make them think they would never want you as a future ruler beside me,” he was quick to add as some sort of damage-control.

“Can I steal one of your mother’s rings?” 

Well, that was. Something.

“Nothing that’s gonna get you in trouble.” Chad reiterated the concept, hoping the waiter wasn’t able to hear them through their hushed tones.

“So it’s a yes.” was Jay’s response, and Chad turned to look at him with his eyebrows raised.

“And that’s not going to get you in trouble?”

He could almost feel Jay’s smugness radiating off of him. 

“You’re only in trouble if you get caught,” he said.

He smoothly moved in front of Chad, so that they were facing each other from up close.

“ _And I don’t,_ ” Jay whispered last against his face, and winked at Chad before going back to his side right as they neared the table, leaving Chad little to no time to ponder over the possibly very proximate eventuality that his fake date was going to pickpocket his mother.

Well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me having Jay make a Aladdin reference because I have feels about parallels between my boy and that story? more likely than you think.  
> I made Jay wear the same outfit for Family Day as the first movie even if this fic is set a year later because, as my beta reader Dyl so eloquently put it, "I'm literally lesbian but that's such a chef's kiss omg". 
> 
> Hope you liked this first chapter! I'm very excited about this fic because I've never been able to write more than a 7k oneshot in the past, but ever since getting into Descendants in the last couple of months (between way too many uni exams in so little time for my sanity to remain intact if I didn't find a distraction) I've had many ideas and lots of inspiration, I have already written 14k of this and counting and I'm thrilled about it! Hope you'll tag along with me for this ride, it'll hopefully be a fun one. I think I'll post the next chapter a week from now, next Sunday, but I have yet to see if that will become a fixed update schedule or if I'll simply post a new chapter whenever I feel happy with it.
> 
> Leave kudos and comments, and let me know what you thought! Until next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Chad put on a smile as he called for his parents, catching their attention: “Mom, Dad!”

He saw them turn their heads towards him and their lips curl up, then watched as their eyes trailed to Jay and took in the long hair slipping out from under his beanie and going past his shoulders and what they could see of his clothes, the maroon, blue and mustard yellow leather sticking out like a sore thumb among all the clean-cut lines and soft colours of everyone else in there. Chad could notice how his parents were taken aback behind the calculated royal smile he knew how to read through very well, since it was the same one that _he_ had been taught, so he wasted no time in reinforcing the blow.

“This is Jay, my boyfriend,” he said warmly, dragging the other a step forward by wrapping his hands around one of Jay’s biceps. A very _bare_ bicep, that pointedly clashed with the whole fancy and proper atmosphere of the restaurant and that was brought to his parents’ attention even more now that Chad’s fingers remained curled around it. 

His father’s lips tightened ever so slightly and Chad decided that he should have absolutely given Audrey more credit, because for how crazy her idea had seemed when he had first heard it, it was going _great._

“Hi,” Jay threw at them with a nod of his head, then moved to kiss Cinderella’s hand and shake King Charming’s.

Chad’s mother smiled sweetly at that one pleasantry, only for her expression to falter when she sat back down in her chair and rested her hands one over the other on the table. She looked down at them as she took them apart again, seeming confused.

Woah, had Jay done the stealing the ring thing already? Chad hadn’t even noticed. Jay had simply glided on to greet Chad’s father after the hand kiss without looking suspicious in the slightest, apart from the smirk on his face that was probably there just to unsettle the royals a bit. Damn. The guy really was as _good_ as he said.

“Shall we sit down?” Chad asked cheerfully, then dragged back one of the two empty chairs around the round table and gestured for Jay to sit on the other one on his right.

He took the menus from the standing waiter, who promised to be back in a few to take their orders and left, and passed them around to the others.

Jay took one and, a moment after, his hand was on Chad’s thigh.

Chad didn’t tense up, because it would’ve looked weird if he did, but he saw his parents throwing subtle glances at Jay’s arm. Even if the table was in the way, it was not that big, and the angle of Jay’s arm didn’t make it hard to guess where his hand was resting.

“What should I get, babe?” Jay asked, leaning into him to read over his shoulder the open menu that Chad was holding. Jay’s own menu rested closed on the tablecloth in front of his seat, perfectly ignored.

Chad scanned the list of dishes, looking for something with a lot of sides and sauces that could’ve potentially made a mess. “This chicken is really good,” he answered when he finally found it, pointing to the name of the dish on the paper.

“I’ll get that, then.” Jay leaned away with a grin, but his hand didn't move.

When the waiter came back to take their orders, Chad noticed how his parents seemed to look at the menu for the first time when it was their turn, sounding like they were reading out loud the first thing their eyes settled on. His theory was proven even more plausible when his father ordered something that had clams in the list of ingredients, when he _hated_ clams.

Chad focused on Jay, who was slumping against the back of his chair and twirling a fork between the fingers of his right hand. His posture was so strikingly relaxed and nonchalant that Chad felt like he might’ve as well had his feet up on the table and have the same effect.

“So, Jay, correct?” Chad’s father started from the right of who he was referring to. “I don’t believe we have met before, have we? I think I would have… remembered _._ ”

Jay huffed in amusement, then leaned forward and rested his elbow full on the table. Chad had no idea if Jay was doing it on purpose or if he simply didn’t know what the proper etiquette in the United Kingdoms of Auradon was (probably the second, why would he have wasted time willingly learning something so boring even to Chad, who had been used to it for all his life), but it was working _wonderfully_ in the plan’s favour.

“Would’ve been pretty hard, unless you suddenly decided to dabble in some unspeakable crime some years ago before I got here. I’m one of the villain kids from the Isle.”

Chad’s father froze for a moment, likely unsure how to respond to that, while Jay casually took some bread from the basket at the centre of the table and started munching on it.

“Right,” his father said slowly.

“Mmh, this is good!” Jay told Chad with his mouth still half-full as he pointed to the bread, as if he were completely unaware of the king of Cinderellasburg stalling on his side.

Chad had to drink a sip of water to hide his amusement.

The waiter came back shortly after with their dishes, which made his father relax slightly, as if he was glad to have gotten a distraction. 

It didn’t last long, however, because he appeared subtly disappointed when he looked down at his plate, probably from noticing the clams. Chad hid his smile inside of his glass again.

While the four of them ate, Chad talked briefly with his parents about school and how his classes were going in a vague-enough way that didn’t mention any of his struggles (that he was working on fixing, _really_ ) and about the tourney game they would’ve had the following day, barely even noticing Jay’s hand on his thigh anymore. His mom and dad asked him a couple of questions and nodded along to his replies, apparently listening attentively, but Chad could feel that their attention wasn’t fully on him.

To their credit, Jay stuffing his mouth full of food with a remarkable voracity and clearing his plate at an honestly quite impressive speed from beside him _was_ rather distracting. It should have felt gross, because it kind of looked that way, but Chad was too entertained by the concerned looks on his parents’ faces to care about it. The chicken he had suggested had served its purpose, since now there was definitely a mess on the plate and some sauce around a corner of Jay’s mouth.

It was then that Chad decided he too could have some fun with this whole plan of freaking out his parents.

“You big _baby_ ,” he called out with the fondest voice he could muster. “You have some left…” he vaguely pointed to his own face, then turned and picked up his own napkin. 

He leaned in close to Jay’s face, placed one hand under the other’s chin to keep him still and started to slowly rub at the corner of his mouth. Jay had pretty nice lips, he noticed, so he made it a point to look at them attentively, because he figured that was what a boyfriend would’ve done. Jay’s hand that had been on Chad’s thigh until that moment came up and wrapped itself around Chad’s wrist gently, not pushing him away, just staying there. He looked up into Jay’s eyes and found that they were already staring at him with this focused gaze in them, which was perfect and exactly what was needed for the plan, and Chad barely contained a smile from curling up his lips. He rubbed at the spot a bit more, still looking into Jay’s eyes. They were quite a nice shade of brown.

“ _So!_ ” his mother’s voice was particularly high-pitched from opposite Chad. “How did you two get to know each other?”

Jay and he broke apart and Chad smiled at her, blithely ignoring the way her excessive cheerfulness seemed definitely forced.

He was the one to rest his hand on Jay’s thigh this time. “Oh, it was mostly because of tourney, Jay is in the team too.”

“Yeah,” Jay agreed with a smirk that didn’t foreshadow anything good. “You know how it is, it’s hard not to stare in the locker room showers and then one thing led to another...” He waved his hand in the air like it was no big deal.

His parents’ posture visibly stiffened, and Chad took his hand away from Jay’s thigh to not give his parents the final heart attack. And to dab at his own mouth with the napkin to hide his smile.

“Does anyone want dessert?” He asked with a face-splitting grin after a couple of moments of silence that made it clear his parents weren’t going to say anything anytime soon, keeping his tone light as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

His mother shook her head feebly. She still managed a small smile at him, Chad gave her credit for that. “Not me, thank you, dear.”

“Me neither,” echoed his father.

Chad turned to Jay then. “Jay?”

“I’m full, babe.”

Chad pouted. “Aw, I really wanted you to get something sweet after lunch,” he whined, hoping the other caught on the opportunity for an innuendo he was serving him on a silver platter.

He did.

“I’m sure we can still arrange for something like that,” Jay drawled in a low, flirty voice as he leaned closer to Chad’s face, topping it all off with a wink.

Chad’s father’s grip on his fork was wonderfully tight.

“Well, I think it’s about time for us to leave,” Chad said all chipper, turning back towards his parents. “Dad, could you please call the car? Mom, dad, thank you for the lunch.”

“‘twas fun meeting you,” Jay followed up with a nod of his head.

“Yes, it was… lovely,” Cinderella replied, with a smile that didn’t seem all that serene.

Chad got up and hugged his mom and dad goodbye, while Jay only tilted his chin up in acknowledgment to both of them to bid his farewells.

When Chad was done, he got back to Jay’s side and the two of them started heading towards the exit door of the restaurant. Chad could feel his parents’ eyes on his back, so he grabbed Jay’s hand as they walked and laced their fingers together, for good measure.

Once they were safely out onto the sidewalk, Chad let go of Jay’s hand and finally allowed a laugh to bubble out of him. 

“Oh man, that was _great_ ,” he said scrolling his head, his blonde curls bouncing from side to side in front of his eyes. “Most entertaining family lunch I’ve had in a while, that’s for sure.”

He turned to the other. “Thanks again, Jay.”

A corner of Jay’s lips curled up. “You owe me after this, remember that,” he said, and Chad waved a hand in the air as if to say he knew that very well. “But it was fun, I’ll give you that.”

“Oh, by the way.” Jay looked like he suddenly remembered something and started digging in one of his pants pockets. “Here.”

He threw something at Chad, who caught it with two hands and looked at it. When he recognised his mother’s ring, he was surprised. “You don’t wanna keep this?”

Jay shrugged. “Nah. That was just to mess with them, I don’t really do the whole stealing thing anymore here.”

Chad nodded and put the ring away, making a mental note to sneak it in his mother’s bag the next time he saw her.

“Got any idea on what the payment will be yet?” Chad asked as the same car with the Cinderellasburg crest on the side and the flags drove down the street towards them.

He glanced back at Jay and saw him shake his head. “No. But I’ll let you know when I come up with something.”

Of course he would, it was pretty much a given, considering how adamant he seemed to remind Chad of their arrangement every time the prince tried to thank him. He was right, though, it was only fair after how Chad had acted in the past. Jay probably just wanted to make sure that Chad wasn’t using him only to backtrack on his part of the deal at the last minute. He could understand that.

This time, when Chad held the car door open for him, Jay didn’t stall in confusion. He still rolled his eyes and swatted Chad’s chest with the back of his hand, but climbed into the car without saying anything.

As soon as Chad got in after him and sat down he realised that _wow_ , Jay was right. Those car seats really _were_ comfortable. 

He suddenly felt a heavy tiredness wash over him, likely mostly coming from half a day of behaving as cheerful and positive as he could in front of his parents.

He didn’t have anything major to hide ⎼ apart from the whole fake boyfriend situation ⎼ he simply felt like he always had to be at his best princely behaviour in front of his family, generations of royals of a kingdom that they were going to entrust to _Chad_ at one point in the future. He didn’t want to disappoint, despite how many times his inner voice (which sounded a lot like Audrey more often than not) repeatedly told him that his parents were _nice_ and _kind_ , and that they weren’t going to be disappointed in him if he wasn’t the most enthusiastic and captivating person in the room for _once_. 

But Chad hadn’t made up all of those expectations for himself out of nowhere: his father was _King Charming_ , while his mother had been so outstanding at one ball that she had managed to capture his father’s attention deeply enough that he had set out to look for her among all of the girls in the kingdom when he couldn’t find her anymore. Chad had _standards_ they probably expected him to meet, even if they didn’t directly know or voice them.

He wondered if Audrey had suggested the whole Jay plan instead of just telling Chad to ask his parents to stop trying to match him up because she knew how he was. The arrangement prevented him from having to confront his parents directly, which he wouldn’t have done anyway, and offered someone else to put under the spotlight so that Chad could hopefully achieve what he wanted without feeling like he was the one being held up as a let down. A smart move, really. Audrey had been educated as a ruling-royal-to-be just as meticulously (if not to say strictly) as him, and coming up with a way to maneuver a situation to reach a goal without making the involved counterpart uncomfortable was a prime lesson in political mediation.

Chad often thought she was smarter and more planning-savvy than people gave her credit for.

He came back to reality when he realised Jay was shaking his shoulder a moment after. Except that he found himself in a different position, with his head resting back against the headrest of the car seat and his posture definitely more slouched, from the one he had just been in.

“Did I fall asleep?” he asked, feeling groggy and finding his own voice surprisingly hoarse.

“Yeah, like right after we took off from the restaurant.” was Jay’s reply.

Chad nodded. Well, that was embarrassing.

“Sorry about that,” he croaked. He cleared his throat and continued: “I wasn’t exactly the most entertaining host.”

“It’s fine, I didn’t need one anyway,” Jay waved him off, then pointed to something behind Chad. “We’re back at the dorms.”

Chad looked out the car window and, sure enough, they were parked in front of Auradon Prep.

He nodded again, thanked the driver and got out of the car as he tried to regain some of his composure, smoothing his clothes and fixing his hair. It didn’t seem to work too well, if the amused look Jay gave to the top of his head was any indication, so he patted down his hair once more as they walked to the school.

When they got to the entrance, Jay turned towards him. “I can get to my room on my own.”

Chad didn’t understand what he meant. “Uh?”

“You don’t need to walk me back to my room,” Jay told him, like it was an explanation. Then, after a beat, he added: “Go to sleep. You look like death.”

Chad rolled his eyes, even if he doubted his sleepiness preserved all the impact it could have had. “Gee, thanks. But don’t worry, I wouldn’t have anyway. You are out of my kingdom’s car and in neutral territory again, my host princely duties stopped there.”

“Right,” Jay said as he nodded slowly, not looking convinced. Probably marveling over how stupid the neat borders of those rules were, Chad knew that he himself did it often. Or maybe he was waiting for some trick additional sentence to tell him that they actually weren’t done yet and to not celebrate so soon not having to endure Chad’s company further.

“Pleasure doing business with you, come find me when you know what you want in return,” Chad said, because he wasn’t going to force Jay to tolerate his presence any longer, but he was cut off at the end by a yawn he couldn’t fight back.

“I meant it about the sleep.” Jay seemed suddenly serious when Chad looked at him, but a moment later his usual cheeky expression was back. “Can’t have you making us lose the game tomorrow because you can’t stand up, right, Charming?.”

Chad yawned again. “Yeah, yeah.” He waved sloppily as he turned and started to walk away. “See you tomorrow.”

When he got to Doug’s and his room, he was merely able to bring himself to shrug off his pastel abomination of a suit jacket before collapsing onto the bed.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Chad walked onto the field on Sunday and took in a deep breath, savoring the fresh air mixed with the concoction of undefined smells that together just screamed _tourney_ to him. He missed playing, even if the last practice had only been a few days before. Real games felt different.

He scanned the crowd on the bleachers and around them, like he always did before a match. Making himself aware of the environment he was in had become a learned habit at that point, but it also helped him calm his nerves in situations that made him buzz with expectation, like before a game, so he didn’t make an effort to stop.

His gaze travelled over the crowd, cataloguing what he could see: the opposite team’s fans wearing green and orange, the school’s band with Doug in the front directing them, the group of cheerleaders shaking their pom-poms from the edge of the field among which he spotted Audrey and Jane, the sea of people wearing yellow and blue to represent Auradon Prep.

His eyes stopped when they focused on two sets of hands waving at him. 

Hands that belonged to his parents, who were sitting on the bleachers close to the front line, there to watch Chad while he played. And also while he was off the field.

Shit. He suddenly realised that the second part would be the problem.

He smiled and waved back at his parents, then turned around and roamed the grass with his gaze. When he finally found Jay, he jogged up to the bench he was sitting on and made sure nobody else was within earshot before speaking.

“Hey.”

Jay looked up at him, seeming slightly surprised to see him there. Less than when Chad had approached him for the first time in the locker room, so it was still an improvement, but that first time would’ve been hard to beat anyway.

“Hey. What’s up?”

Chad didn’t waste time, there was no point in approaching the topic carefully after Jay had already gone to their fake date. “Sorry, I know our deal is over, but my parents are here and I thought it would be weird if I didn’t look like I was talking to you. I’ll go soon, just didn’t want to erase everything we did yesterday.”

Jay raised an eyebrow at him and leaned back on the bench, supporting himself with one arm. He smirked. “We don’t want that for sure,” he said, sounding… flirty?

Chad was confused. He told himself that that was probably just how Jay normally was with everyone and Chad simply hadn’t witnessed it directed at him before because he and Jay weren’t on speaking terms, or that maybe he had just imagined the tone, when Jay’s next words cleared up for him what was going on.

“We can continue the deal if you want.” He suddenly looked a bit unsure.

Right. He had been acting again. That made much more sense.

Regardless, it was Chad’s turn to be surprised. “What?”

“We can continue the deal,” Jay repeated. “Any time you’ll need to make your parents believe it.”

“Are you sure?”

Jay nodded. “Yeah. I told you, I like causing some chaos.”

Any hint of doubt was gone like it had never been there in the first place, and Jay appeared as laid back as ever. Chad looked at him with an unimpressed gaze.

“Besides, you’ll owe me even more this way.”

There, that sounded a lot more convincing.

It was still too useful of an offer for Chad to refuse it on the base of the worrying prospect of an even bigger moral debt in the future, so he nodded to seal the arrangement instead of holding his hand out for a shake. It would’ve looked weird to anyone else and would’ve kind of defeated the purpose of pretending they were dating. “Alright. The deal is back on.” 

“Cool,” Jay said, then got up from the bench. “Where are they?”

Chad shifted slightly until he was giving his back to the crowd, so that Jay could watch it while looking like he was just talking to him.

“Side of the bleachers near the locker room entrance, in one of the front rows.”

Jay’s gaze was focused on something over Chad’s shoulder. 

“They’re looking over here.”

His eyes met Chad’s. “Are the rules the same as before? I do whatever I feel is gonna work?”

Chad didn’t think it would’ve been necessary to reiterate that, but he replied anyway: “Yeah, the rules are the same.”

Jay nodded.

“Just a warning, I’m gonna grab your ass.”

“Wha⎼”

The words barely had the time to be registered by Chad’s mind that, sure enough, Jay took a step closer, almost making their chests touch, and curled an arm around Chad’s body to grab his butt. It had been done quite blatantly and, since Chad’s back was directly facing the bleachers, he was pretty sure that any person in the crowd who had been looking in their general direction had seen it. Like his parents.

Jay remained in Chad’s close space and kept the hand there as he murmured something unimportant about the other team’s uniforms, probably just to not make the situation uncomfortable like it would’ve been if they had kept silent, while Chad just sort of looked at the features of Jay’s face in front of him. He had a faint mole under one eyebrow that Chad hadn’t noticed at the restaurant. Jay’s eyes were trained on the bleachers behind Chad’s shoulders, so it didn’t feel weird or too intimate to look at him from so close. It was almost funny to think, considering that Jay’s hand was still very much on his ass.

After a little more than a handful of seconds, Jay took a step back. “Think that worked.”

He bent slightly down to pick up his tourney helmet from the bench, eyes still not meeting Chad’s. 

Only when he started walking backwards onto the field did he finally look up at Chad (who was still standing in the same spot, since he didn’t know if Jay considered his part of the deal done for that day and wanted the two of them to act detached as usual after it) and called out to him with a smirk: “You coming too, Charming? Or are you just going to watch while I win this thing?”

Chad rolled his eyes with a small smile and caught up to him. 

“Not a chance without my help.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The next time Chad hung out with Audrey in her room, he was sprawled face-down at the end of her bed as he scrolled through his phone, while the princess was cuddled up against the pillows reading a book.

It was a relief for both of them when they could relax and forget to keep a perfect posture and behaviour for a while away from indiscreet eyes, and, in that sense, Audrey’s single bedroom in the dorms was an invaluable treasure. Chad didn’t know if it was simply an inheritance from when she was Ben’s girlfriend ⎼ maybe to avoid having the future king possibly be seen in even the slightest of improper acts, like, magic forbid, _making out_ ⎼ that she had kept after, or if Audrey’s grandma had had to pull a few strings. Either way, both she and Chad knew that they could always be themselves in there with someone who understood, which was a lot to say for a prince and a princess in their teenage years who had always been used to having heavy expectations on their shoulders at all times.

“You know,” Audrey called his attention. “People have started to talk.”

Chad locked his phone and shifted to his side to face her, watching as she closed the book she had been reading and put it down on the bed next to her. There was almost always some rumour or another going around at school, so he waited for her to be more specific.

“About you and Jay.”

That made Chad raise his eyebrows. “Where did they get it from?”

“Some people saw you two go away on a Cinderellasburg car together on Family Day, and the ass grab at the game wasn’t exactly _subtle_ ,” Audrey answered.

Chad ignored the heat wanting to rise to his cheeks at the memory and started considering what that could entail. 

“How big is the rumour?” he asked.

Audrey was silent for a second. “Not that big.” 

From the look in her eyes, Chad knew what she had really wanted to say.

“You mean _not big enough_.” He groaned, then brought his gaze to her again after realising why she had probably looked that serious saying it. “Do you think my parents would spy on me?”

“I don’t think they would go _all the way_ ,” Audrey began. She had replied right away and hadn’t seemed surprised by his question, meaning that Chad had correctly interjected her line of thought. “But I think they would definitely send someone to check on you and your new boyfriend’s relationship sometime soon, since they don’t know him and you made him appear as unfit as possible. And if they find out that nobody at school lately has even seen you interact with the guy you’re supposed to like enough to bring him to meet the parents, that’s going to look sketchy.”

Chad rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling as he tried to come up with possible different solutions to the problem, but only one kept pushing to the forefront of his mind and seemed to be the single viable one.

He turned his head to the side towards Audrey. “So… I have to pretend to date Jay in everyday life too?”

Audrey shrugged. “It’s the only option I can think of, if you don’t want to backtrack on the whole plan.” She tilted her head to the right. “Do you think he’ll accept?”

“Probably,” Chad told her, remembering how Jay had been the one to suggest keeping the plan going in the first place at the game. “But my debt to him is going to become _huge_.”

Audrey leaned forward and patted his shoulder a couple of times, comforting. “At least this way you’ll be sure to get rid of all that frankly excessive guilt you have left.”

Chad didn’t reply that it wasn’t excessive at all, in his opinion. 

He knew he likely would’ve always felt bad about his past actions in some capacity, but Audrey had made a good point. 

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

This time, Chad knocked on the door of Jay’s dorm room after only taking one deep breath. It still felt somewhat weird to go look for Jay so openly, but he figured it was how he would have had to always interact with him from that moment on, if things went as intended.

The door opened and Chad came face to face with Carlos, who just raised his eyebrows and didn’t seem at all enthusiastic to see him there.

Chad gave him a small smile. “Hi. Can I talk to Jay? Please?”

Carlos opened the door further and moved away, leaving space for Chad to enter the room. He did so, giving a nod of gratitude to Carlos, who closed the door behind him.

Chad surveyed the room with his eyes quickly until he spotted Jay lounging on his own bed, headphones around his neck like he had just taken them off. He raised his head when he saw Chad.

“Hey,” Chad greeted him with the hint of a wave. “Can we talk?”

Jay nodded. “Sure, Charming.”

Nobody in the room seemed to intend to move, so Chad glanced unsurely at Carlos, who was still standing at his side.

Jay seemed to get the message. “‘Los, can you leave us alone for a bit?”

Carlos sighed, then crossed his arms and looked at Chad suspiciously. “Fine. Dude, let’s go for a walk.”

After the door closed again behind Carlos and his dog, Jay slid the headphones off from around his neck and sat up straighter on the bed. “Your parents are coming to visit again?”

“Um, no, but I still need your help,” Chad told him. “There may be some... complications.”

Jay furrowed his brows. “Like what?”

“Like how my parents might send someone to check on our supposed relationship here, and they’re going to realise something’s not right if nobody in the school has even seen us talk.”

“And they’re not going to believe you wanted to keep it a secret, right?” Jay asked.

Chad shook his head. “Not when I was open enough about it to introduce you to them.”

“What do you want me to do, then?”

Chad shifted his weight from one feet to the other. “The best thing would be to start pretending that we’re dating here at school too, like an everyday thing. Before you ask, yes, I’m going to owe you even more if you agree. But I know that it’s a big thing, especially since people wouldn’t know it’s fake and it would mean acting almost all the time, so I’ll get it if you say no. I’m still gonna pay you back for what you’ve done until now just the same.”

Jay got up from the bed and walked over to him. “I told you I would continue with the deal any time you needed to make your parents believe it, didn’t I? And this counts too.” He extended a hand to Chad. “I’m in. You like to shake on it, right?”

Chad felt a tiny bit of relief wash over him as he took the hand in front of him. He suspected Jay was going to agree, but there was always a chance he wouldn’t.

“We’re going to have to decide later on things like dates and stuff somewhere we can be seen, but I guess we’ll have time for that if we’re going to start hanging out more.”

A corner of Jay’s lips curled up. “General rules anyway are just making it look real and not telling anyone, right?”

“Yeah,” Chad agreed, then as an afterthought added: “Carlos, Mal and Evie can know. I mean, I’m assuming they know already.”

“They do,” Jay confirmed.

Chad let a moment of silence pass. 

“Carlos didn’t seem psyched about it,” he commented.

Jay snorted. “None of them exactly is,” _because Chad had been an asshole_ “but it’s fine. I can handle myself.”

Chad didn’t know what exactly Jay meant with that, but he nodded anyway for lack of better to do.

“Yeah. I’m sure you can.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Getting to lunch the monday after the deal... changed? got upgraded? was nerve-wracking.

Chad sat down at the empty end of a table, deeply missing Audrey being next to him. He knew why she wasn’t, of course, it only made perfect sense when Jay (along with _his friends_ , Chad’s brain supplied, unwelcomed) was probably going to sit with Chad, and having Audrey there too without a deal to justify her presence and not the best memories she associated with some members of the group would have been deeply awkward. But still, he wished she was. He knew that Audrey got him, that she could understand him even when they didn’t share the same opinion on something, because their lives had been and were so similar. She would’ve been an appreciated anchor of familiarity grounding him among all the new and hostile that was his near prospect for the lunch.

He threw a look at her, sat at a table a bit further down in the cafeteria and slightly to Chad’s right, and met her gaze. Audrey gave him a small smile as encouragement, before gracefully bringing to her mouth a fork with what looked like a piece of carrot on it and eating the vegetable. 

To anyone else she probably looked nothing other than proper and perfect as usual, but she was nervous too, Chad knew. It wasn’t specifically because the people Chad was going to eat with were from the Isle (he made a point to not call them _villain kids_ even in his head, because it felt like a title the four of them could reclaim for themselves, but that would have sounded like an insult coming from Chad’s mouth, after everything), it was just the way Audrey and he had been educated. They believed the four from the Isle weren’t particularly more capable of doing evil than anyone else who would’ve wished to act that way just because of who they were, although growing up in such a place must’ve shaped them and taught them some things, but the faint echo of faraway lessons on politics was still there in Chad’s ear, whispering to him how _‘when you do someone wrong, revenge is always guaranteed to come’_ and _‘it’s easy to get you cornered and outnumbered if you expose yourself too much’_ and _‘this would be the perfect chance for a public humiliation’_.

He knew it was likely the same for Audrey, even if she hadn’t directly talked about it out loud with Chad. They didn’t need to. The concern was probably even stronger for her for the possible public humiliation, after the whole thing of Ben asking Mal out so plateally at the game while still dating her. It hadn’t been a purposeful attack on Audrey, but she had still taken it pretty rough. An exigent family and constant expectations of perfection were bound to make insecure kids.

Chad was pulled out from his thoughts when Jay appeared directly across from him, making Chad’s nerves prickle under his skin.

He glanced behind Jay’s shoulders. He seemed to be alone.

“Charming,” Jay greeted him, sliding his sandwich in front of Chad’s tray and plopping down on the seat opposite him.

“Hey,” Chad said back. He resisted a whole two seconds before asking, because he needed to _know_ , for his own nerves’ sake: “Are your friends coming too?”

“Uh? Oh, no. Thought we would draw more attention if it was just the two of us,” Jay replied, grinning cheekily and stealing a french fry from the flimsy white plastic container in front of Chad. (Comfort food, because he was stupidly nervous and desperately needed it, good manners saying princes shouldn’t be seen eating something so messy and greasy with their hands be damned.)

Chad felt some tension leave his shoulders at Jay’s words and discreetly exhaled a breath of relief. He could’ve managed, at worse, to deal with Carlos, Mal and Evie being hostile towards him during the lunch, at least they were in on the act. But the three of them being there would’ve very likely meant also having at the table Ben, Doug, Jane and maybe also Lonnie, and Chad would’ve had to act all lovey-dovey with Jay for them _while_ the three other Isle kids probably glared burning, poisoned daggers into his head. Not fun.

Chad copied Jay and popped a french fry into his mouth too. 

As he chewed he mused that staying silent would’ve been pretty useless, but he had no idea what he could talk about with Jay, so small talk was his chosen icebreaker for the time being.

“How was today for you?”

Jay stopped his hand mid-way to his mouth after Chad spoke and rested his elbow back down on the table. Chad realised then that what Jay had been about to eat and was still holding onto was another one of Chad’s fries. When and how had he taken that one without him noticing? He had swift fingers, that was for sure.

Jay raised his eyebrows at him. “Don’t you want to organise stuff for the deal?”

“Well... yeah,” Chad agreed, “but we can’t talk only about the deal all the time, can we? That conversation would run out in two days max.”

Jay looked at him with something akin to amusement on his features. “And your big solution for talking more was _‘How was your day’_?”

Chad sighed, lightly exasperated. “It was a start!”

Jay just smirked at him. “It was _fine_. How was _your_ day?”

Chad opened his mouth to answer, but closed it after a moment. 

“You know what, you’re right. There’s not much to say to that unless you want to complain about something,” he admitted. “Guess it’s talking about the plan, then.”

He ate another fry. So did Jay, but at least he seemed to focus on his own lunch after that and started to unwrap his sandwich. He took a bite.

“We gotta figure out dates, right?” Jay asked around a mouthful of food.

Chad hummed in affirmation as he drank a sip of water from his bottle. 

“Yeah. It’ll be easier to plan them as time goes on rather than a lot of them now, but for this week I think we can start easy. Like lunch together a couple days, be seen outside under a tree studying or something one or two times. The rumors should start to get bigger with that already, people usually pay attention to both of us.” Even though it was for different reasons, Jay because he was the top athlete of the school that pretty much everyone found hot and Chad because he had a big name and was obnoxiously annoying, they were both popular. For once, Chad was almost happy to be.

Jay didn’t seem convinced, but didn’t voice any of the complaints he clearly had. Probably at realising he would’ve had to spend so much time with Chad. Maybe Chad should’ve suggested less fake-dates, to begin with. “What days are you free?” Jay asked him.

“When we don’t have tourney or R.O.A.R. practice I pretty much only have homework to do in the afternoon,” Chad replied. And maybe he would’ve finally managed to really focus on them, for once. He recalled there weren’t going to be any special political dinners with other royals or socialising events he’d have to attend with his family anytime soon, and his grandfather seemed satisfied enough with the level Chad had reached with his routine private afternoon lessons on etiquette, diplomacy and anything else his grandfather felt was necessary to master for the future heir of Cinderellasburg, that he hadn’t organised them again for the current school year for the first time since Chad had started attending them at twelve years old. Chad had basked in that bit of validation when he found out.

“It’s pretty much the same for me, practice is all that really keeps me busy.” Jay told him, stealing another one of Chad’s fries. He had apparently already finished his sandwich, as Chad discovered by looking down at the empty space on the table in front of Jay.

“Speaking of, will you be there today? Coach said he had a new playbook strategy to show us,” Jay added, munching on the fry nonchalantly.

Chad picked up and ate three fries at once, just to make sure he got to eat the majority of his lunch before Jay could finish them all.

“Of course I will.” He paused for a moment. “Now that you mention it, we’re also together at practice! That counts too. We could bring down the outdoor dates to just one, then. Maybe Wednesday, but you can choose when, really...” he trailed off, pensive.

“There aren’t many chances to show romance while playing _tourney_ ,” Jay interrupted him placing a hand on top of Chad’s on the table, and okay. He had a point.

“Why do you insist so much on having as little dates as possible, anyway?” Jay asked, suddenly seeming serious, even if his posture remained relaxed.

Chad tilted his head slightly to the side and fidgeted with the collar of the shirt he was wearing, embarrassed. He vaguely registered Jay’s eyes travelling down to his neck and fixating there as he did that. He realised it was probably because he was looking foolish and straightened back up, clearing his throat.

“Uhm, so you can still hang out with your friends, really. You spend every day with them, and I assumed you would still want to. What kind of pretend boyfriend would I be if I monopolised all your time and took you away from your friends? Especially when they already don’t have many reasons to like me.” He said the two sentences at the end like a joke, with a grin.

There. That was true, and it sounded a lot better than saying ‘I’m saving you the trouble of having to come up with excuses to not spend much time together because you don’t like me, and the less time I’m there to annoy you the later you’ll have enough and call the deal off, you’re welcome.’

Jay’s eyes were back on his face. “What about your friends?”

Chad shrugged. “I only really have Audrey, it’s easier to organise hang outs during shared free time when it’s just two people.”

Jay stared at him with a look in his eyes that Chad couldn’t place.

He waited in the silence, not knowing what to say.

“We’re having dates on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday,” Jay declared after a couple of seconds with a tone that didn’t leave space for objections, staring Chad down with a serious look. 

Chad’s brain gaped at him. _What?_

“Cool?” Jay asked with a determined nod of his head, but didn’t wait more than a second for an answer before signing it all off by taking yet another french fry from the little plastic container in front of Chad and popping it into his mouth.

Chad nodded, dumbfounded. “Yeah⎼ Can you stop eating my fries, please?”

Jay seemed to wait for a moment, as if to see if Chad had gotten what he said, then slipped back into his carefree and vaguely flirty expression. Maybe it wasn’t even necessarily flirty, maybe Jay had just made a natural reflex over the years out of knowing how to act to look effortlessly charming. Still, Chad had to admit it achieved what he imagined was the desired effect pretty well, and he was supposedly an expert on all things charming.

“Oh yeah?”

Jay stood up and walked around the side of the table until he was standing next to a slightly confused Chad, who was looking up at him trying to figure out what he had in mind. His smirk didn’t promise anything good.

Jay placed one hand on the table and the other one on the back of Chad’s chair, then leaned down until his face was directly in front of Chad’s own, just far enough that Chad could look at him without his eyes crossing. Chad was reminded of the last time the two of them had ever been so close, when he had wiped food from the corner of Jay’s mouth at the restaurant, and his eyes instinctively moved to Jay’s lips before he could stop them. He brought them back to meet Jay’s, but could still see the other’s smirk grow wider.

“Try and stop me, then,” Jay told him in a low voice, almost a whisper, as his breath gently hit Chad’s face from the proximity. 

Then, he was gone.

Chad blinked at the empty space in front of him. He slowly turned to look at the table, but, as soon as he did, he sprung up to his feet and turned around.

“Jay!” he called out.

Jay stopped heading towards the door of the cafeteria and spun around, white container with the few that were left of Chad’s fries unmistakably in one hand and a big grin on his face. He blew Chad a kiss with a wide, dramatic arc of his hand and turned around to continue walking out. 

The fond smile that Chad wore as he shook his head lightly and got back to his seat wasn’t even that hard to put on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally got to see the date, and a bit more of the dynamics of Chad interacting with his parents! and the start of the new agreement that will go on for the rest of the fic, the more actual fake-dating, along with a hint on how the other vks feel about it. 
> 
> Also there was a bit of a psychological detail there on why Chad never refers to the vks as such, in case anyone noticed that he never calls them 'villain kids'. 
> 
> I forgot to mention it in the first chapter's notes, but Audrey and Chad are the best of friends possible here and I love them so much. They feel very similar in my mind, and when Chad said "An exigent family and constant expectations of perfection were bound to make insecure kids" he was totally talking about himself too without realising.
> 
> I'm from europe and never had usa-style canteens or cafeterias in school, but I assume it's just as unlikely there to find french fries as it is here. But my mind kept insisting on that being Chad's lunch, so let's assume that in Auradon lunch and dinner are better that the real-life norm.
> 
> The third chapter will be posted next Sunday. Leave kudos and comments, and thank you so much to everyone who left such lovely comments so early on on the first chapter already. See you next week!


	3. Chapter 3

Despite what Jay had said about there not being many possibilities to show their fake relationship during tourney, Chad saw him start to act in the locker room after practice that same day already, and was surprised by how good and dedicated to pretending he was. Jay’s eyes were unmistakably glued on his torso while Chad looked into his bag for a shirt to wear, in a way that Chad assumed was meant to appear to the others as if Jay didn’t want to be noticed while doing it. 

As he pulled a shirt over his head, Chad felt heat prickle its way up the skin at the back of his neck from the insistent stare, but reasoned that his flush could only help their case. He hadn’t thought before, like Jay apparently instead had, about the fact that people who were dating were indeed expected to be looking at each other often. A lapse in judgement on his part, really. So, when it was Jay’s turn to rummage in his bag for a clean shirt to put on, Chad was the one to not-so-subtly study him.

He knew that Jay was fit, that much was obvious to everyone, contributing factor the way Jay seemed to have a personal aversion to any form of sleeves in his everyday life, but Chad had never had the chance to stop and really observe him, much less shirtless. Jay had always been reasonably well-built ever since Chad had first seen him, but he had filled up nicely even more in the past year, thanks to the fresh and constantly available food in Auradon. Now he was all defined lines and lean muscles that came from sports practice, rather than from surviving on the Isle. He had a couple of old, faded scars on his left side and his chest, most likely from some fights he had been in before moving to Auradon.

A layer of dark red fabric interrupted Chad’s gaze from further focusing on the object of his observations, so he looked up, meeting Jay’s eyes. The other must have noticed where Chad had been looking, because he smirked at him. Chad smirked back.

When he turned around towards the bench to close his duffel bag that was laying on it, Chad noticed Aziz looking between him and Jay discreetly and felt a smile grow on his lips. They seemed to be quite good at this plan thing already.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The next morning, Chad was retrieving his books for his first class of the day when Jay appeared and nonchalantly leaned his shoulder against the locker next to Chad’s.

“Hey,” he greeted smoothly.

Everything about Jay’s flirty smile and his pose had such a close resemblance to the typical movie scene with the handsome athlete hitting on the girl protagonist that Chad almost wanted to laugh. It was amusing how the cliché trope was undoubtedly thrown off its usual course by the fact that they both were jocks, for a start, and that Chad was the one wearing his own letterman jacket while Jay had opted for one of the unorthodox ones Evie had no doubt made him, all darker colours and shining a bit as if parts of it were made of some sort of thin leather look-alike.

“Hey,” Chad replied, making a show of looking Jay up and down. “You wore sleeves for once, I must say I am thoroughly disappointed,” he said, mock regret in his voice.

Apparently, long sleeves meant that Jay wasn’t wearing his fingerless gloves like usual. Chad had no idea why his mind decided to focus on that particular, or why it had struck him in the first place, but he repressed the instinct to reach out and touch, to brush his fingers against the back of one of Jay’s bare hands, to lightly take it in one of his own. They might have agreed to fake date, but Jay still didn’t like him at the end of the day and Chad didn’t want to push his own luck. He had briefly linked his fingers with Jay’s before as they got out of the restaurant, but that instance was different; there had been a layer of leather between their hands then, and Jay couldn’t have pushed him away because they were in Chad’s parents’ line of vision. Now it wasn’t necessary or required.

Jay’s smile grew lopsided with amusement. “If you just want to look at my muscles some more, you can simply ask,” he said, teasing.

Chad hummed. “Maybe next time I will,” he replied with the same tone, before turning to his locker to close it and adjusting the book and notebooks he had picked up for his class against the crook of his elbow.

Jay had been right, the pretend flirting was indeed fun.

“But actually,” he said as he started to walk down the corridor and Jay followed beside him, “I like this.” He gestured to the jacket Jay was wearing. “It looks good. Tell⎼” Chad stopped himself and went quiet. He had wanted to ask Jay to give his compliments to Evie, but realised that she probably would have preferred to never hear a word of what Chad thought again in her life. He looked away and cleared his throat.

“What are you doing here, by the way?” he asked a beat after, hoping to divert the conversation.

Jay held his arms out at his sides with a grin, as if it was obvious to see. “Walking you to class.”

Chad raised his eyebrows in surprise. That made sense, but it was also a rather sweet move. Jay definitely knew what he was doing as a fake boyfriend.

“Does that mean you’re also gonna carry my books?” Chad asked, hopeful. He threw in a big, bright smile too, to try and make it more convincing.

Jay elbowed him lightly in the arm, but amusement was clear on his face. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Charming.”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Their first week of pretending to date had been going well, so far. Jay walked Chad to class almost everyday, and they had had one more lunch together in the cafeteria. (They still hadn’t found any particularly substantial topic to converse about instead of just discussing tourney, complaining about bad classes they had and occasionally saying something about the food they were eating, but as long as it _looked_ to others that they were talking, it was all good.) Even the two fake dates they had had on Wednesday and Thursday had gone well: both times they had sat together under one of the trees in the school garden near the back entrance to the building, so that they were in plain view, and Chad had studied and done his homework for a couple hours while Jay rested his back against the tree trunk next to Chad and read a comic or scrolled through his phone.

That was the same position they found themselves in on early Saturday afternoon for their third and last fake date of the week. Jay hadn’t brought any comics that day and was looking at the screen of his phone like he had done since Chad and he had arrived at their usual spot at 3pm, while Chad was currently feeling _ecstatic_. He had finished all his homework for the following week early for the first time in what felt like ever, especially considering he had actually _understood_ everything and hadn’t just rushed to half-assedly copy exercise answers from someone. It was probably very pathetic to beam at his textbook and feel so giddy because of something as mundane and lame as finishing homework on time, but he was too euphoric about not feeling like an idiot for _once_ to bring himself to care.

Jay sighed loudly from beside him and Chad turned distractedly to look at him, and saw him sit up from where he had been slumping against the tree trunk and stare back at Chad. He didn’t look happy.

“This can’t work.”

Chad’s bright smile fell at once.

He had known, he had _known_ that Jay would have realised he wanted to back out from the deal if they started to spend so much time together all of a sudden. It didn’t matter that Chad had tried his best not to speak too much and to be the least annoying he could, he should have kept asking to have less dates during the first week. He knew himself, had known that it could’ve never worked smoothly, he should’ve insisted, he should’ve known better.

“You want us to find something to talk about? Alright,” Jay said.

Wait, what? _What the hell was he on about?_

“Study dates are fine, but we can’t have only those, we need to know each other for this thing to work. So, you and me,” Jay was looking pointedly at him and Chad was still trying to figure out what in Fairy Godmother’s name was going on. “We are going on a real fake-date. Right now.”

Chad was too dumbfounded to even think of a reply.

“We’re passing by your room to leave your stuff and then we’re going into the city,” Jay said as he stood up.

Chad, brain still running a mile a minute to try and make sense of anything he had just heard, could only accept the hand the other was offering him and be pulled to his feet as well. He hoisted his own backpack onto one shoulder as he watched Jay pick up Chad’s belongings from the grass and hold them in his arms.

Jay looked at him once more before starting to walk towards the school, and Chad followed behind him. His own treacherous brain, despite all the work it already had to do, apparently still found a moment to unhelpfully inform him that Jay was technically carrying his books.

Chad ignored the way that felt like a very important piece of information, for some unfathomable reason, and walked faster.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Once they arrived outside of Chad’s dorm room, Jay stopped so that Chad could walk in front of him and unlock the door with his keys.

Chad did just that, then pushed the door open too, since Jay had his hands full, and stepped to the side to let him pass through. Jay brushed past him definitely closer than what would have technically been necessary, his bent arm basically grazing Chad’s torso.

Jay set down the books and notebooks on the desk under the window, while Chad took a deep breath from the doorway. He felt all kinds of discombobulated trying to make sense of Jay’s behaviour and intentions, and his mind was a frenetic whirlwind for reasons he could not make out. He was supposed to be good at reading situations pretty easily. He shook his head lightly. He doubted there was anything that could have added to the frenzy between his temples.

“Oh, hi Doug!”

Chad froze after taking only one step past the threshold.

He turned towards the bed in the room that wasn’t his own and, indeed, his roommate was sitting on it, a textbook open in front of him. Doug shot them a greeting in response as he moved his eyes to Chad, still standing just barely past the open door, and then back to Jay, who had very clearly just carried Chad’s books in the room, like he had been doing him… a _favour_ , or something. To _Chad_. Chad fought back the heat wanting to creep up his neck by pure force of will alone.

This had all been Jay’s fault, taking up so much of his mind by being clearly up to _something_ (why else would he have demanded for even more time to spend with Chad, apparently wanting to _talk_ to him, and not even on the school grounds where it could have at least been justified by them having to play the act for the deal? It made no sense unless he was scheming some way to bring Chad to his downfall) that Chad hadn’t even considered the possibility of Doug, his own _roommate_ , being in their shared _room_. A stupid mistake in considering possible turns of events that he usually wouldn’t have allowed himself to make past the age of ten. It was all Jay’s fault, really.

And why was Chad even feeling embarrassed at being seen with Jay by Doug? He and Jay were pretending to be dating in the first place, and it didn’t matter that Chad was very much preoccupied with having to figure out what Jay was planning at the moment, the whole situation probably looked to Doug like Jay had just been nice to Chad because they were close. Which was the whole appearance they were trying to give off.

He regained himself, coughed once and rolled back his shoulders to rid them of the tension.

“Hi, Doug. We are, uhm⎼ going to walk around the city for a bit,” Chad said, gesturing between him and Jay. “In case you wonder where I am and can’t find me.” He couldn’t think of many reasons why Doug would want to look for him, but it was the standard thing to say anyway.

“Same for me if the others ask,” Jay echoed from behind him. “We should get going now, but see you next time, Doug, yeah?” His voice had sounded closer at the end, like he had walked a couple of steps forward as he spoke.

“Sure, and yeah.” Doug looked clearly taken aback by the events happening before his eyes, but didn’t ask any questions. “Uhm… Have fun, then.”

“We will.”

The voice sounded _really_ close then, and there was suddenly an arm sneaking its way around Chad’s waist. He turned his head to see Jay grinning at Doug as he pulled Chad further against his side.

Chad’s brain at least had the decency to remember some of his usual ability to deal with situations swiftly then, and he smoothly wrapped his own arm around Jay’s torso as well, putting on a small shy smile for Doug.

Doug’s eyes had widened slightly while looking at their arms’ movements, but Chad gave him credit for reigning in his surprised expression pretty well. It hadn’t been nearly as dramatic as it could have.

Jay started to turn the two of them towards the door, so Chad gave Doug a little wave of his free hand and kept on his fake bashful smile until he and Jay were out in the hallway and the door was closed behind them.

There, he disentangled himself from Jay and took a step away. He hummed a short noise from the back of his throat. “So,” he said, turning to face Jay. “How are we going to get to the city?”

It turned out that Jay had sort of assumed they would go by car, but Chad didn’t think it proper at all to ask Ben to bother one of the chauffeurs ⎼ especially on a Saturday ⎼ who were supposed to have to worry only about driving around the _actual_ royal family, not two friends of the dumb, too kind for his own sake, young king who were going on a _fake date_. That was even worse than if it were a real date. Not that he would have ever asked, even then ⎼ the whole idea of going to Ben for that was just... preposterous.

Was Chad even still considered Ben’s friend? They had been for sure when they were younger, with Audrey and Jane too, but nowadays they didn’t really spend time together anymore. Ben, the oblivious idiot, probably still regarded him as such. Of course he would. He had kept cheerfully waving to Chad in the hallways and at tourney practices and games when he still was on the team even during the time Chad had acted like a douchebag ⎼ and he must've for sure _heard_ about it, but never commented on it or even seemed to truly notice. He was just like that. Too optimistic and naive and with rose-coloured glasses constantly thrusted so high on the bridge of his nose that he didn’t even notice when he hurt someone, like he had done with Audrey. He was the nicest asshole in the whole United Kingdoms of Auradon and it was so deeply _infuriating._ And he was the _King._

A king Chad wouldn’t be caught dead asking for a totally not meant for him ride in the city for such a futile personal reason like a date, much less a fake one, so that was out of the question.

An alternative would have been to use a moped like the one Ben owned, but Chad wasn’t allowed one ⎼ a combination of his parents fearing it would be too dangerous and his grandfather claiming that it wasn’t a mode of transport regal enough for a prince. It didn’t feel like too much of a pity at the moment, because it prevented Chad from having to drive with Jay sitting right behind him, maybe even what, with his arms wrapped around Chad for support? It was a ridiculous prospect. It would have been a prime position to... _stab_ Chad, or make him swerve out of the road. Sure, it was unlikely that Jay would have attempted at Chad’s life while he was on the moped as well, but better safe than sorry. Yeah. He had definitely dodged a peril there.

In the end, they settled for taking a bus to the city centre. Jay said he had never taken one ⎼ public transport wasn’t the type of thing one would find on the Isle ⎼ and he was curious to see how it was.

On Saturday and Sunday there were more rides available than during the week, so they only had to wait for around fifteen minutes for a bus since Chad led them to the stop nearest to the school. After they hopped on, Chad bought both the tickets for Jay and himself and went to sit down near one of the big windows. Jay followed him in tow and sat opposite him.

The space between their two seats ⎼ which were covered in a hideous blue moquette with small yellow motifs scattered all over it ⎼ wasn’t big enough for them to stretch their legs, and the jumpy ride made their knees bump against each other’s repeatedly. Chad mentally gloated in his grandfather’s face childishly, because in terms of modes of transport, it didn’t get any less regal than _that_.

Once they arrived in the city, Jay asked Chad to choose where they were going to go ⎼ surely just because even after a year he still didn’t know Auradon that well, not because he was being _nice_ ⎼ and Chad brought him to a bright little café he usually went to with Audrey, where the cakes and desserts were simply sublime and the tea always tasted better than the fancy one he was invited to take back home at the castle in Cinderellasburg when someone important from another kingdom would come visit. Probably because in the café there was no barely acquaintance of a royal watching him sip from a delicate china cup as Chad tried his best to keep his posture straight and his pinky high and to not make any noise while drinking.

Once seated in the café, Chad asked for a berry tea and a couple of butter cookies, while Jay ordered a coffee and a slice of chocolate cake. (Chad was stupidly happy that Jay had decided to follow the comment he had made in passing about how good it was, and then that he had moaned appreciatively after taking the first bite of it. It _wasn’t_ weird that Chad felt a smile tugging at his lips and a warmth pooling behind his sternum because of it. It was totally normal, he was simply attached to the place and proud that someone else recognised how good it was. Yes. He decided that he would pay for both of their orders before they left, as a thank you to Jay for appreciating the café.)

Chad took a sip of his tea, savoring the taste and the pleasant sensation of the hot liquid descending down his esophagus. He waited for a few more seconds of silence, then coughed awkwardly.

“So… talking,” he told Jay. “Any idea on what we could talk about?”

His first attempt at some more substantial conversation hadn’t gone that well, so he had figured it would be safer to hand the ball to Jay this time.

Jay sucked clean his small fork slowly, thinking, then put it down on the plate and leaned back in his chair.

“What about why you asked me for this deal?”

Chad had been wrong. So wrong. Making Jay decide the topic wasn’t safer _at all_.

He definitely didn't want to open up about why he felt like he couldn’t directly confront his own parents and disappoint them, especially not with Jay, who he still didn’t know well at all and who he suspected could maybe be plotting something to embarrass Chad further down the road. Being vulnerable and revealing his weaknesses so openly wasn’t something he did, ever, unless he was alone with Audrey and feeling like everything was too much, so he kept his answer short and noncommittal.

“I told you, I wanted to stop my parents because they get a bit overboard with trying to find me a life-long happily ever after with anyone around my age they know.”

“Anyone? Didn’t you say it was just with princesses?” Jay asked, furrowing his brows. He seemed to be observing Chad’s expression as he spoke, looking for something.

Chad shrugged. “Well, yeah, it’s mostly princesses, really. My parents are open and all and they know about me, but I think they subconsciously always have that notion of having to think of a future heir for the kingdom in the back of their mind. It would be a lot easier if magic was still allowed and blood-related children could be born by using it, like how Fairy Godmother did with Jane. It would be great for non-traditional male-female couples, same-gender ones, or single parents. It would also help traditional couples who are infertile or sterile. I hope I will be able to have a part in making it a thing and making it available to everyone, in the future.”

Jay nodded, serious. Then, after a moment, asked: “So you like guys?”

A corner of Chad’s mouth curled up. “That would have been a bit much to fake just for the deal, don’t you think? But to answer your question, yes, although I’m not _only_ into guys. I’m not gay, I’m... bisexual. Pansexual. Whatever.” He waved a hand in the air dismissively. He was proud of his sexuality and didn’t generally have a problem talking about it when it came up in conversation, especially with people around his age, but after a lifetime of names and statuses, he took some rebellious pleasure in the fact that he didn’t necessarily have to choose a label for himself. He just liked who he liked.

He saw the confusion on Jay’s face, which looked more like curiosity than disgust or disbelief, and realised that the Isle probably didn’t consider sexuality and gender education a priority, or a thing at all, so he explained: “It means I can be attracted to people regardless of gender.”

“Oh!” Understanding flashed on Jay’s face, and he nodded. “That’s a lot more easy to say than all those names.”

Chad snorted and smiled. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“And your parents already knew,” Jay told him. It wasn’t a question.

“They did,” Chad confirmed. “Although my grandfather is pretty set on old views and traditions, so the default expectation in my family in the long run is still for me to find myself a princess. That and the whole heir thing from before.”

Jay nodded and leaned forward again, resting his forearms on top of the table. “I guess that answers part of my question. But I meant… why did you ask _me_. Specifically.”

“Oh.” Jay was looking straight at him, and Chad felt embarrassment slightly warm up his cheeks. He could’ve gotten out of it like he had intended in the first place, not revealing even the little he had said about his family. That one was a far less dangerous question to answer directly. “It was Audrey’s idea, actually. She suggested the whole plan, and explained how she thought you’d be the best candidate because my parents hadn’t met you before, you obviously know how to flirt, and you probably would have come up with good ways to unsettle them.”

Jay seemed taken aback by what he had heard, raising both his eyebrows and sitting up straighter in surprise. “Your ex-girlfriend suggested your fake date?

Chad bit back a laugh.

Not many people had really believed that he and Audrey were seriously dating back then anyway ⎼ unlike Chad’s parents ⎼ because apart from their first kiss at the tourney game after Ben’s confession, they had never acted as more than the friends they were, so Chad reckoned it would have done no harm to tell Jay the truth now.

“She was never actually my girlfriend, in reality. We were pretending.”

Jay waited a beat, then asked: “So fake dating is a thing you do often?”

Chad snorted. “Not really, no. Just that one time and now. But me and Audrey didn’t really put much effort in making it feel real anyway, and it was more for her sake back then. Maybe it’s what gave her the idea for this, though.” He gestured between him and Jay “I didn’t think about it.”

Jay looked at him in silence for a moment, his head tilting slightly to the side. “You’re really close to her, aren’t you?”

Chad couldn’t stop a wide smile from finding its way on his face. “I am. We’ve known each other since we were kids, when we used to hang out a lot with Jane and Ben too, and she’s still my best friend. It’s… nice, to have someone who you know can understand what you go through because they’ve had similar experiences, and that you can always talk to.”

‘Nice’ was definitely an understatement. Sometimes he felt like without Audrey he wouldn’t have known how to deal with everything happening in his life at once whenever it got too much.

Jay nodded firmly. “I know what you mean. It’s the same for me with Mal, Carlos and Evie. We’re together through thick and thin, even when we don’t agree or feel the same on something. We always try to be there for each other.” His voice had turned soft when talking about his friends, and fondness was clear in his expression. It was new for Chad to see such open, unguarded affection in Jay’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but stare. For some reason, he felt warmth start to bloom in his chest.

Chad smiled at Jay. “Yeah,” he said, voice coming out close to a whisper.

Then he blinked, and went to drink another sip of his tea, and the moment was broken. Jay leaned back in his chair. Chad cleared his throat lightly.

Both of them ate some of what they had ordered in silence. Chad was surprised to notice that the quiet felt more comfortable than he thought it would, or that it had been before.

After Chad had finished his butter cookies and Jay his slice of cake, the latter spoke: “Say, Charming, I was thinking… what would you say about you and Audrey joining me and my friends for lunch sometimes this week?”

_Terrible idea. Horrible._

He thought of the best way to say it kindly, without offending Jay. “I’m… not sure that’s the best idea. Not with… everyone there. It might be a bit too soon.” Audrey and Mal. Evie and himself. Ben. Jane. Carlos. It was definitely too soon. He didn’t even know if it would ever _not_ be.

Jay sighed and slumped his shoulders ever so little. “Yeah, you’re probably right…”

Seeing him appear dejected, Chad had then the final proof that he had really started to lose his own mind, because he found himself speaking before he could think about it: “You could eat with me and Audrey someday, though, if you want.”

_Why. Why had he said that._

“Really?” Jay asked, perking back up slightly.

Chad nodded. His brain had truly decided to act against his better judgement.

At least, Jay was apparently just as bonkers as him, because he _accepted_. A small consolation.

Chad drank the last remains of his tea, tilting his head almost completely backwards. He set down his cup and told Jay: “We should maybe start heading back. I’ll go pay.” He got up from his chair, but Jay moved to follow him.

“Wait, I’ll come with you.”

Chad stopped him. “No, don’t worry. I got it.”

Jay looked at him. “You already paid for the bus tickets. I can afford this for myself.”

Chad nodded. “I know.” And he did, he was aware that Ben’s proclamation had provided for a monthly allowance to be given to the Isle kids for their everyday expenses that weren’t just the board and lodging provided by the school. “But I owe you a lot, remember? Might as well take every opportunity I get to start paying you back little by little.”

And he also wanted to, because Jay had liked the café and the cake and he had listened and talked to Chad and hadn't made fun of him just _yet_ , and it had been nice, even with Chad worrying that it would all lead up to something bad in the future. But he didn’t need to sound more pathetic or vulnerable by saying the truth than he had already done by telling more about his family than the other had really asked for. Jay was always adamant about reminding Chad of his debt to him, so he was more likely to accept that reasoning.

Jay smirked cheekily. “Alright, then.” He sat back down again, and Chad mentally patted himself on the back for knowing what to say to get him to do so. 

Chad walked to the counter to pay for their orders, and took the chance while he was there to greet a barista he was familiar with who hadn’t been there when he had ordered. “Hi, Victoria.”

The girl’s dark bangs flopped slightly when she turned her head up from where she was fastening her apron around her waist and to the side to look at him. Her chubby face lightened up in recognition and she smiled brightly when she saw him. “Chad, hey!” She straightened up and fixed her black glasses over her nose. “Wait.” She held up a finger at him, then moved to the end of the counter and tapped the tall brown-haired guy standing behind the cash register lightly on the shoulder. “Luke, I’ll take this one,” she told the guy, pointing towards Chad.

The guy, Luke, glanced at him briefly, then nodded at Victoria with a smile and walked away. Victoria motioned Chad over enthusiastically, and he joined her on the opposite side of the cash register. 

“So,” she said, patting her hands down on the counter. “Which table were you at?”

Chad turned around and pointed it out for her. “That one for two by the window and the plant.”

“Guy with the long hair?” She asked. 

“Yes.”

She nodded and tapped a couple of buttons on the register, but soon looked up at him again and leaned in closer. “Are you on a date?” she almost-whispered conspirationally.

Chad smiled at her antics. “Sort of, yeah.”

Victoria got back to tapping, but with a satisfied smile on her face. After a while she read out the total price, took the money Chad handed out to her and stored them away in the register. As she was handing him the receipt, she leaned in slightly again. “Nice one.”

“I know,” Chad mock-whispered back. He didn’t need to be dating Jay for real to acknowledge that he was attractive, he had already gathered _that_ much.

Victoria glanced behind Chad. “He’s coming here,” she informed him quietly before pretending to be focused on wiping a nonexistent stain on the counter, and Chad only had to wait a handful of seconds before an arm was wrapping around his waist loosely and a hand was resting against his side.

“You done, babe?” Jay asked as he slid beside Chad, and his arm slipped away from Chad’s waist.

Victoria looked up at Chad with amusement in her eyes and her eyebrows slightly raised at the pet name. He resisted rolling his eyes at her, even if jokingly.

Instead, Chad replied to Jay’s question. “Yes, I was just saying hi to Victoria,” he said, nodding his head towards the barista. “She’s usually here whenever I come by with Audrey, and sometimes the three of us chat a bit.”

“Nice to meet you! I’m Victoria,” she greeted Jay with a bright smile, and he nodded his head in acknowledgement with a smile of his own, although more contained. “Hi there. I’m Jay.” A pause. “Nice to meet you too,” he added after a beat.

Victoria nodded at him, round face still bright and friendly, then turned to Chad again. “I gave you everything, right? Change, receipt, nothing missing?” Chad had barely the time to respond positively to her questions that she was talking again in her usual fast chatter: “Well, perfect then. I’ll give you my goodbyes, I wouldn't want to steal more of your time. See you next time, Chad! And I hope you’ll become a regular customer as well, Jay.”

“Oh, I think I will,” Jay replied, turning towards Chad with a smirk as he did. Chad found his own neck wanting to heat up. Jay was referring to the café. And Chad was simply proud that he had liked it as well.

When Chad looked back at Victoria, her eyebrows had shot up in mirth again. He ignored her teasing once more and reciprocated her goodbye, as did Jay. As the two of them walked to the door, he could almost feel her amused gaze still on him. 

Just then, Jay made it even harder for Chad to control the blush wanting to creep up his nape past a reasonable level that he would have been able to justify with acting his part, because he intertwined his fingers with Chad’s. 

Jay was wearing his gloves so it was nothing new, not different from what Chad had done while they were walking out from the restaurant after the lunch with his parents, but it had been done so casually that for a moment Chad had faulted at remembering that it was for the deal, that Jay had probably been aware of the barista’s eyes on their backs as well.

He thought that Jay would let go after they turned a corner and were out from view, but discovered that the other apparently intended to continue holding his hand even as they strolled back towards the bus stop. Despite trying to figure out once again what Jay was aiming at and what his ulterior motives were, Chad found that he didn’t mind the warmth enveloping his hand. He could still remain vigilant even if he let himself enjoy some human contact he had always liked, right? He was for sure perfectly capable of keeping his brain alert and of not getting too comfortable. Right?

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Once Chad and Jay got back from their fake date and parted ways at the school, the rest of the day passed by quickly. All of a sudden it was already two hours after dinner, and Chad was changing into his pajamas and getting ready for an early night. 

As he was taking off his clothes from the day, he heard a crumpling of paper from one of the pockets of the jacket he had been wearing. Curious, as he didn’t remember putting anything there and he usually stored all his receipts or scrap pieces of paper in his wallet, he investigated. What he found were a couple of folded banknotes he was fairly sure he hadn’t been the one to put there. He wrecked his brain, trying to figure out how they might have ended up there.

He suddenly had a flash of memories and remembered Jay’s arm wrapping around his waist for a fleeting moment back at the counter of the café. Jay’s hand had been placed on Chad’s side, sure, but that also meant close to the pocket of his jacket. Chad stared at the banknotes he held between his fingers and twirled them around a couple of times. That made absolutely no sense, once again ⎼ that seemed to be a recurring theme with Jay’s behaviour lately. 

Chad had been sure that Jay was so easily convinced to let him pay for both of their orders because he had been reminded of Chad’s debt to him, not because he had been secretly planning to sneak the money for his own coffee and cake into Chad’s pocket. Why would he, in the first place? And without wanting Chad to notice, on top of that? Chad _did_ owe him, he owed him big, and there was not a single reason he could think of for Jay to have acted the way he had.

Jay really kept proving himself to be more and more of a cryptic mystery.

Chad sighed and carefully stored the banknotes away in his wallet, fully intending to return them to Jay the next time he would have seen him. He then climbed into his bed and pulled the sheets up to his torso, although he wasn’t feeling sleepy yet.

After an imprecise amount of time that had probably been about a quarter of an hour, Chad hadn’t bothered to check the alarm clock on his bedside table, the door of the room opened and Doug entered. He stopped right past the threshold when he saw Chad looking at him from his bed.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” he asked in a low voice.

“No, don’t worry, I wasn’t sleeping,” Chad replied, shaking his head lightly.

Doug nodded and walked further into the room. Without another word, he started his night routine and got ready for bed too. It was only when he was under the covers as well that he spoke again.

“So, are you and Jay dating now?”

Typical Doug. For how much he appeared shy and reserved most of the time, he had always been able to be quite blunt and direct when he wanted to ask something important.

Chad shifted onto his side towards the other bed in the room and found Doug in a position mirroring his. He put on a small smile. “It’s pretty new, but yes, we are.”

Doug nodded pensive, the move slightly askew from his lying down with his cheek squished against the pillow. “Makes sense. In the last couple of months I caught him looking at you often, but he never looked angry like he would have last year. Guess this explains it now.”

Chad was very glad that Doug had already taken off his glasses to sleep, or else he would have seen the very blatant shock on Chad’s face.

_What?_

Doug stretched out a hand to flick off the lights, followed by the sound of his bed creaking as he shifted under the covers. “Goodnight,” he mumbled to Chad in the dark.

Chad rolled over on his back with his eyes wide open and stared at where he would’ve seen the ceiling past the darkness, mind buzzing in confusion once again.

His quiet reply to Doug came a couple of beats too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, also known as "Chad continously freaks out and is confused because he can't possibly fathom the idea of someone intentionally being nice to him without it being a trap." Poor insecure baby.
> 
> We got a insight on Chad's view on his own sexuality and a convo to show that he really cares about being a good ruler of his kingdom and political figure in Auradon, because I felt like that was important to establish for his character but hadn't had a chance to depict it yet. In any way, Chad said lgbt+ rights and for everyone else too.
> 
> I also couldn't resist making him go on that little rant about Ben, because Ben as a character IS both so endearing and just and frustratingly a total dumbass at times, and I always love when other characters in fics acknowledge that. And Doug! I decided that Doug will be kind of amazing without realising it in my fics and I can totally see Chad having a soft spot for his roommate without ever telling anyone.
> 
> There is a scene I've been really wanting to write for a couple chapters now, but these character do indeed do what they feel like and it never felt like the right time yet, so it'll have to wait for the next one (hopefully). I arrived at the last minute with finishing this chapter because I missed three days not writing, which means I might not be able to finish the next chapter by next sunday because I'm not ahead of schedule with chapters like I was before. I will still try though! Many thanks to my beta-reader Dyl once more, for always being there for me when I need a chapter to be reviewed.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and for who left kudos and comments so far! Always appreciated. This chapter should be the one which makes this fic reach past the 20k words count, which is so exciting in itself for me, and seeing comments adds to that tenfolds. Bye everyone! See you next week (Hopefully sunday, if not I might arrive a couple of days later). Stay safe and healthy!


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